With Au pairs
We were between
10 and 15, in the same cluster according to the period, from lots of different countries : South Africa, Germany, Israel,
Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Austria. We spoke only english to each other. But sometimes the girls from the same country
spoke their own language (which made me upset !). All the group knew each other, we hung out a lot together but we had
our own little group, if I can use those words.
Between us it was great. I met so many wonderful people and friends for life from all over the world. We had an amazing
relationship with each other.
It’s true that during the year, you spend hard times, family problems, life problem,…and they are always there for you and
support you each time you need to. You just know that you will never be alone.
You don’t share only the difficult moments but also the good ones, excitation, happiness, fun, parties, parties and parties…
Moreover, you develop human skills and get this incredible human resources: different cultures, different thoughts, different views. You learn so much more than you can think. I feel much better, more mature, more confident, more peaceful. I realized that you can see things and life differently like a new life’s philosophy. All girls are wonderful and each of them taught me something about life.
We did so many things: we went out every night in bars playing pool table or drink something. When you work
all day long in the house with kids, at the end of the day you just want to leave and go far away. And it’s quite awkward
to invite friends in your family’s place at night.
We went partying in clubs together and during the day we did some shopping, we hiked in the mountains, did some
picnics in the parks, some sport (Volley and tennis) and sometimes some snowboard (1h30 driving) and tubing (tube on the
snow). We also used to go to the restaurant, karaoke, movies or bowling.
We partied on the most important days (Halloween, Christmas, new years’ Eve, Memorial Day…). And during our
weekends off, we went to the big cities like NYC, Washington or Philadelphia (Trips).
Anyway, even if we lived in a small village, we found something to do and we had fun. Just have fun, a good laugh and
enjoy your time there. Everything I did is in my memory forever. I can’t forget those wonderful moments!
With the others
When you live far away from everything, it’s quite difficult to meet people. But at the same time,
because you have an accent it’s easy to speak with someone and start a conversation.
American people are fascinated by people from an other country (different language, different culture). USA are so huge
with few border countries and a language spoken by everybody that they are very interested to meet different people.
I was really surprised to see that lots of Americans know a lot about international issues and are interested by something
else than their own country.
However, I think they are really superficial, fake in the way that everything is managed by relations and money
(of course, don’t generalize).
We also met lots of foreign people who were not au pair and it’s very interesting to see how they got there and why.
Traveling is the best way to met hundreds of people you wouldn’t meet in an other way.